Driving mechanism for water craft



BM. SCHNEIDENBACH. DRIVING MECHANISM FOR WATER CRAFT.'

APPLlATmN HLED MAR. 29. 1922.

1,420,579. rantedlmeza 192.2.'`

soy

nnrviive MEorrAmsM FOEWATEE CRAFT. f

Specicationfof Letters Patent.y

Application filed March '29, 1922. YSerial NoT 547,804.

'T0 all 'whom t may concern i `Be it known that l, EMIL MAX SCHNEI- DENBACH, a citizenl yot Germany, .residing at Friedrichshagen, near Berlin, Germany,

have invented certain new and useful Improvements in or Relating to Driving Mech- .i u

tions Of this kind, the `balance of .the boat would be 'upset by raising the cent1-0f anism forlVater Craft; and I ldo hereby ldeclare the following to be a full, clear, and eX- act description of the invention, such as will ena-ble others skilled in the art to which. it appertains to make and use the same.

A desire has long existed among amateurs of aquatics tol be able to propel boats,l

especially those employed for sport,. by means operated bythe occupant. For 'eX'- ample, manually operated screw propeller gearing, the train oi" gears being enclosed in a casing, has been tried without any 'considerable success. Pedal driven gear has lbeen more favoured. The main advantages of such a'form of drive are (l) the power of the leg muscles is considerably greater and far less quickly exhausted than that of the muscles of the arms, (2) the passenger can .keep his eyes in the direction in which he vis travelling and has his hands free for steering, oars, with their wide reach, are dispensed'with and therefore narrower waterways can be more readily traversed, (il) the position of the passenger in the boat the same as in ordinaryrowing boats and his legs are able to *work in a 'similar position as when cycling, (5) the pedal gear ,consisting oi' enclosed standard units may be easily mounted in and detached from the boat, and in boats with a plurality of seats the arrangement of other pedal gears to the other seats and acting on a common shaft increases the utility of the'boat without interfering with the waterline of the boat.

Attempts have been made to solve this,

problem for a considerable time and in a great variety ot' ways, but, for the most part, without success, since nearly all in' ventions relating to this matter consist of cumbrous devices for transmitting motion for which in most of the cases it was necessary to provide a suitable form of boat or to alter the arrangement ofthe lseats or thwarts, whereas the requirements are just the opposite. Furthermore, these previous attemptsV relate nearly always to fixtures, not easily to be applied by anyone but an experienced boatbuilder, and being of considerable size and weight and mostly ary tion are'in great demand. n f f' The present-invention is intended to lapratenteayaane 2o, i922.L

ranged onthe lstern of the boat, the water- Y Y nning eiiiciency of the boat.

Moreover, 1n various known construc- Agravity rsuch `as( the operatorv standingL in `'line of thejcraft-is disadvantageously i-ntluenced by the displacement-of load, thus impairing .the r yisting boatswherein the passengers or 'oper- 'ators are placed in the usual seating .posiproximate more closely to a practical soluftionjofthe above problems, inasmuch as .all the requisite@preliminary conditions have been carefully. 4taken into consideration.

The advantage of the -invention vconsists.` l

in the tact that the dimensions and weight ofthe device have been reduced to a minimum, so -that whilst it does not in any way Aspoil the appearance of light boats used in 1j* aquatic sports, it nevertheless meets all .the

practical requirements hereinbefore enumery ated.

In the drawing Fig. lis a sidev'elevation, Apartly f tion, showing the power mechanism. i F 1g. 2 1s a fragmentary sectionalview transmitting ofa boat, Vshowing moreA ,partieularlyithe Y the .apparatus installation of Aseveral sets of arranged in. tandem. v

Fig. Bvillustrates a sailing boat, with l parts broken. away to show the installation of the apparatus. ,u

The pedal driving gear comprises two pillars secured to a base Yplate 'that can be readily fixed in land' detached from the boat, for supporting the pedal crank and several countershafts carrying interchangeable transmissiongear or chain wheels, to

which the driving yforce may be transmitted from the said crank by -means of bevel:A gears directlyr to a. main propeller. shaft at a suitable ratio, the whole gear constructed as a standard unit being enclosedv in a thin metal casing. f

.The device for transmitting foot powerl to the propeller is illustrated in Fig. l, and its mode of action willbe readily apparent. The motion of the pedals a is transmitted from the crank shaft Z; bythe bevel pinions '0 and l and through the pinions e, f, g, 71., z' to the shaft 7c. This shaft, which, when several sets of the apparatus are regularly or irregularly placed in the one boat, is connected by means of ball joints, acts on the propeller. p

The pinions e and f, are mounted respectively upon the stub shafts c and f', while the pinions g and 7L are both mounted upon a stub shaft g', and the pinion z' is rigid with the shaft 7e. All of the said shafts, as well as the crank shaft Z), are journalled in the upright standards or pillars 79 and p', which are rigidly secured to the base plate Vo, which also carries the sheet metal casing or housing 0, having a cap or cover o serving to enclose the various elements, all aswill be clear from Fig. 2.

In the case of light rowing boats, a speed ofabout revolutions of the pedals per minute, is translated into about 750 revolutions of the screw. ln order to avoid having the crank shaft, and consequently the whole machine,'wider than in a bicycle and spreading the legs too far apart, and also to avoid having to mount the pedal shaft any higher above the bottom of the boat than is necessary to clear the pedals in rotating, so that there maybe no unfavourable alterations in the point of application of the force and oentre of gravity, which would cause instability and also toenable the propeller shaft to be mounted as close` as possible to the bottom of the boat, the transmission is distributed among several small pinions and shafts, the number of which is selected, in each case, in 'accordance with the desired= ratio of transmission. The transmission of speed and power from one shaft to another may also, incertain cases, be effected by means of chain wheels.

Fig. 2 represents a light sporting boat in which the power from several sets of the apparatus, arranged in tandem, is transmitted to the common main shaft. This ligure also illustrates a form of seat which enables the user to assume such a convenient position as to ensure the fullest development of the power of the feet on the pedal gear. Each seat is mounted, by means of pivots Z or by bars m on lateral racks or perforated bars n,

and is so adapted to be adjusted in relation to the pedal apparatus in accordance with the bodily dimensions of the user.

Figure 3 represents a sailing boat provided with a center board r operated in the quired, for storage, in any convenient place.

VHaving now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare what l claim is:

A boat propelling mechanism comprising a base plate; a plurality of upright pillars vv`rigidly secured to said base plate; a plurality of shafts journalled in said pillars;

.power transmitting connections between said shafts; a casing carried by said base plate enclosing said pillars, shafts, and connections; a detachable flexible connection between one of said shafts and the propeller of said boat; a shaft journalled in one of said pillars substantially at right angles to lsaid other shafts and extending through said casing; power transmitting connections within said casing between said last mentioned shaft and one of said other shafts, and foot operated crank members carried by said last mentioned shaft, whereby power may be supplied to the mechanism. y Y In testimony whereof l aliix my signature.

EMIL MAX SCHNEIDENBAGH. 

